Browser Wars, Part Whatever

Not too long ago I wrote about how it would be nice if we could get rid of IE6 on the web. Recently the more I’m reading about browsers the more I think that IE in general is losing the war. Several years ago when Microsoft pushed Netscape off of everyone’s computer it was declared that the browser war was over and IE won. For a while website designers only had to worry about that one browser.

Then came Safari, Firefox and others when web surfers saw just how limiting IE could be. They (myself included) began to switch despite MS’s best efforts to hold on to them. Many businesses are still holding on to their Explorer only ways, but I see that changing as well. There is news that Firefox is now ahead of Internet Explorer in Europe and Matts Cutts of Google posted his blog’s browser breakdown over the weekend showing that Chrome could become a player as well. I don’t see those Chrome visitors here yet and his numbers will be slanted by what he uses, but I like it on my phone.

My opinion is that it’s all for the best, more choices are almost always better. Having viable alternatives will make those who want to force you use “what’s best for you” reconsider their thinking. Anyone who looks at how IE8 works can see that. It’s good for me because I can think of web standards and worry less and less about IE “hacks” to my pages. The question to ask…